by Lately I have been getting at least three emails a day informing me the Registration process is failing here and people are unable to post comments on articles.
I have removed the requirement to be logged in to comment.
If you wish to write for Urban Semiotic, you are still required to register because that’s the only way we can control the Author slug to give you credit.
Enjoy!
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GREAT GOOGLY MOOGLY!
Since I turned off the requirement to Register in order to comment I’ve had over 60 spam comments in the last 10 hours! Too bad Akismet only counts repeat Spam once.
Grr!
20 more!
Good night and God bless.
Good morning to 110 more!
50 more in the last half-hour!
40 more since the last update.
36 deleted.
56 more gone.
Spam comments are crazy. I wonder if word verification would make a difference while allowing for unregistered commenting?
I was having trouble loging in from work until I went to Firefox options and set it to keep cookies until they expire and it then allowed me to log in.
Hi Chris!
Ugh. Spam. I really can’t bear it. Word verification punishes those who wish to comment so I’ll just have to deal with the Spam the best I can behind-the-scenes.
I’ll stop the deletion count. It’s getting old and depressing.
😀
Hey Mik!
Nice to hear from you again!
Thanks for the update on logging in — there were some server upgrades here over the weekend to make things even more “secure” so some of the problems people are having might be related to that feature.
I am happy to hear you figured out what that crafty Firefox was doing!
I had several people wanting to comment but they just could not get in and they emailed me their comments so I knew they weren’t faking trying to get in — so I opened everything up again. We’ll see how it goes…
Of the 10 Spam emails I just deleted, 8 of them were directly related to Gmail and Gmail service enhancements. Boy, that’s fast! Less than three hours after posting my Gmail story —
http://urbansemiotic.com/2006/04/21/do-you-trust-gmail/
— the Spammers are right here with their on-topic and specific Spam, too!
I’m probably jinxing myself, but I’ve never had a spam comment beyond a couple of “just surfing through and saying hi” comments people wanted for blog traffic exchange credits. I get tons of traffic, but most of my hits are directed at previously written posts found through the search engines, so maybe I’m not on the spammers radar screens.
I require word verification with the Blogger-based blog I have. That seems to do the trick.
For my dopetype blog, I am requiring people to sign up, but might remove that since I no longer get comments. I had a couple of nasty comments directed at my readers and the subject matter — requiring registration stopped that. I think in the future, if I remove the sign-in requirement, I’ll just delete any comment from someone no playing nice.
The dopetype people (or is it just the lovely Erica in a one-person shop?) are upgrading the service today, so the blog is down for the time being.
Hi Chris —
You’re lucky you don’t have any Spam comments. They are infuriating and ugly. I’m sure we’ll start seeing some Spam labelled “Spam” here soon!
It’s too bad we are forced to make a “baby with the bath water decision” when it comes to having comments active or inactive. There has to be a better way, Chris!
I checked out DopeType a while back and I think it is a one-woman show. Erica works hard and does a good job. I hope you get back online soon and I hope she regularly backs up your database. If she doesn’t, you should! Does that blog of yours there run on WordPress or is it something else?
I’m not sure what program dopetype uses.
I’ve never backed it up — I probably shouldn’t admit that — since I always assume the provider is doing the backups. I might have to copy the archive files. Is there an easy way to make a back up copy of a blog that one doesn’t host?
I host the majority of the images, so I can back those up easily.
Erica is upgrading the system and is making a new blogging service available at dopetype.com. The new services are not available yet, but should be online sometime soon.
I started up another blog using Blogger, but with my own domain name and hosting.
I’ll be able to back it up easily since I’m paying for the server space and know exactly where all of the files are. I can just drag a copy to my thumb drive and copy everything in a second or two.
Hi Chris —
I would get in touch with Erica so see if you are able to backup your own databases or if she routinely — everyday — does it for you.
It will be interesting to see how the new DopeType shakes out! She has some fun ideas.
You can never have too many backups of your stuff.
Upgrades will always come at the most opportune times.
I checked my statistics and saw that I had 5,528 hits yesterday (2,284 unique and 206 returning). It was a record day and shows the power of providing quality content in a niche area!
Today I have 26 hits (18 unique and 3 returning) because of the outage associated with the upgrade.
Yesterday, my newer blog had 1,509 hits (519 unique and 10 returning) focusing on news about four personalities for a start.
I’m planning to make Random Chaos more thought provoking — hitting on social issues affecting people — and the new blog more like the older Random Chaos.
Switching the focus of Random Chaos will allow me to make the newer blog without my specific personality associated with it — i.e. when I’m writing about “women I love” it is the anonymous blogger “everyman” and not necessarily “me” writing since I’m writing a certain way to serve and entertain my audience.
It separates “Chris” from the concept to make it clear the blog is entertainment oriented and not a personal journal.
Great numbers, Chris, congrats!
So where does SexyHipHopVixens.com now fit into your website presence plans?
😀
SexyHipHopVixens.com is going to be the new Random Chaos.
I’m getting better search engine positioning because of the domain name than I did when I started out with Random Chaos. It’s also going to be more tightly focused, so it should take off pretty quickly.
I’m thinking I’ll leave the old content on Random Chaos since it won’t necessarily be duplicative since new news will be published on the SHHV site. The old content will pull people in who can check out the new content, if they are inclined.
Both are going to be urban oriented since it’s a market that isn’t saturated and needs quality content.
Sounds like a great plan, Chris.
I sure hope you won’t be in competition with the urban core of this Urban Semiotic blog!
😀
Never … this is my place to be ultra serious and to make a difference.
I’m probably going to focus on societial commentary and observations on Random Chaos, but they will be different than that work that goes on here.
Okay, Chris, but we’ll be keeping a VERY VERY VERY close eye on you over at SexyHipHopVixens.com just to be sure. We won’t look at any of the images. We’re there for the text only!
Personally, I always select the “show no images” option when I surf the web to protect my delicate eyes!
Chris! Harr! I actually love those images you have… but I can’t admit that out loud!
How do you clear the rights to those images? Do the Vixens send them to you or do you purchase Rights usage?